So, those of you in Portland know this, but here in Portland we have an amazing park called Forest Park, with over 80 miles of discrete trails and accessible by bus, light rail, bicycle, or from the NW Portland neighborhoods. It’s over 5200 acres, and the Wildwood Trail, which wiggles its way the whole length of the park and then into the adjacent Washington Park, is about 30.2 miles long.
Way back in 2015 (!!) James and I walked it end to end to see if we could (more on that here, heh). And since then I’ve always kind of thought that one day I would run it, since it’s basically a 50k run — though clearly that’s been a low-key, back of mind thought since I’ve been “thinking” it since the end of 2015, ha.
Anyway, yesterday I decided that since I had today fully off, like no plans at all, why not see if I could run 30 miles? And thus a traverse run of Wildwood Trail, or “Wildwood End to End,” as I’ve seen people call it, was born.
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(the end! I know it says “start” Wildwood Trail, but since I started at the far end I was running backwards, so this start was my end;)
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Like the very kind and wonderful human that he is, James didn’t even give me any shit about waking up at 4:40am to pick up a Zipcar to drive me to the Newberry Trailhead, the far end of the trail. Though days are long here right now so I didn’t exactly have to start so early, I very much prefer to start long runs with the daylight; somehow everything feels more possible that way. So, he biked over to get the car while I packed up my snacks and ate a very early breakfast, and away we went.
Omg the birds were amazing. The morning song was in full effect when I started running, and I saw black-headed grosbeaks and a pileated woodpecker and hairy woodpeckers and sapsuckers and towhees so many more and the winter wrens sang me along the whole length of the trail. It was so delightful.
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(Wildwood Trail (blue line). The red line is a detour, onto Chestnut and Nature trails to avoid a section of Wildwood that is currently closed because of bridge construction. I think the mileage ends up being almost exactly the same)
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Let’s be clear, though. I am not exactly in easily-run-30-miles shape right now! I would say the first 20ish miles felt pretty darn good, much to my excitement. It was a totally beautiful day out, and Wildwood trail goes up and down but is imminently runnable (unlike some of the more far-flung trails I’ve been running recently, which are steep enough that I do a fair bit of hiking). For a bit, starting around 17.5 miles where the trail detoured, I was running the opposite direction from the Stumptown 50k — which I did not know was going to be out there, though I’d started seeing cones along the trail early in the day had been wondering if I would accidentally run into a race. Though at first I was a little annoyed because I imagined having to pull over for every single runner coming by, it ended up being super sweet: yes, I did pull over for basically every runner coming by (they were being timed, after all, and I was just out for a joyride), I very much enjoyed cheering for everyone:)
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(just a lovely day on the Wildwood Trail:)
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A little before the intersection with Wild Cherry Trail, so, maybe 21 miles in when I was starting to feel pretty shuffle-y and like running downhill was actively painful, some dude blazed past me super friendly-like, and then I passed him a bit later when he stopped to have a snack. When he passed me again, post-snack, we started talking, and I ended up running with him for maybe 3 miles. That was THE BEST morale boost. I even kinda forgot that my legs hurt and was able to run pretty normally while we were chatting, even after I somehow tripped and fell on my face, ha. He took off at Lower Macleay trail, but, in the best trail magic ever, then brought me a cold beverage and fruit at the end of my run <3. I love trail runners.
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(looking over Portland from Pittock Mansion)
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Anyway. Without going into alllll the details, I took a little detour and break at Pittock Mansion, where Mt Hood was out over the city but not well enough to show up in a picture really (see if you can find it in the middle of the picture above!). I walked the entire hill from Pittock Mansion down to where the trail crosses Burnside Road on the Barbara Walker crossing, cuz ouch, my downhill muscles!! Ironically, running uphill was pretty fine for me until the end, so I was excited once I crossed Burnside that the trail mostly went up or level for the rest of the time, since I could still run that fairly well if rather slowly.
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(big tree caught by another big tree on the Wildwood Trail)
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One of the very best things about Forest Park is that the “start” (or my end) of the Wildwood Trail is right by the Oregon Zoo MAX station. Which means I can take transit super easily right back to my house: take the MAX light rail to downtown, hop on a bus, and get off about one block from home. I still kind of can’t believe that I can go for a 30-mile trail run in the woods and then hop on Trimet at the end to get home. I think that is pretty magical, and I’m so grateful to live in a place where that’s possible.
And, hey! I can run 30 miles! I would say not super elegantly, and I learned that I need to work on my downhill muscles (unsurprising, I suppose, since I always like the uphills better;), but I’m excited about my sweet day of adventure in the “urban” woods. YAY!!